On March 3, 2010, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced its intention to stop the 10-day hold on physicians' Medicare claims in light of recent legislative action to extend current Medicare payment rates through March 31, 2010. President Obama signed into law the Temporary Extension Act of 2010 on March 2, 2010, which extends through March 31, 2010, the zero percent update to the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule that was in effect for claims with dates of service January 1, 2010, through February 28, 2010. Consequently, effective immediately, claims with dates of service March 1 and later which were being held by Medicare contractors will be released for processing and payment. Statutory payment floors still apply and, therefore, clean electronic claims cannot be paid before 14 calendar days after the date they are received by Medicare contractors (29 calendar days for clean paper claims).